Structure and structure-property relationship in native cotton - Some challenges to breeders

This paper presents a brief review of the literature on the current status of the supra molecular structure of native cotton fibre and of the experimental data on the physical properties and cellulose crystallite X-ray orientation parameters in respect of a large number of the same cotton varieties, belonging to different species of cotton grown at widely different agroclimatic locations, namely Coimbatore, Nagpur, New Delhi and Sirsa, between 11.0(0) and 29.0(0) North latitudes in India. Also presented and discussed are the data on cellulose synthesis in sixteen cotton varieties grown under identical agroclimatic conditions at one location. Possible reasons for the variations in the physical and technological properties of fibres have been observed and the implications of these as challenges to cotton breeders in India are foreseen in the light of the demand of the modern cotton processing technologies.